Kiss

A prostitute is requested for services she normally doesn’t provide, which leads to a revelation that may change her perspective on the value she actually provides her clients.

A random “punter” listens to the list of services and associated prices that a prostitute has to offer, as if she were reciting the specials at a restaurant, and then the scene cuts to them shagging atop a bonnet. Although this would set the tone for a story of characters making questionable, and sometimes difficult, life choices, Mat Johns, the director, takes us in a different direction.

Later, a man, seen reviewing photos in his camera of a woman, who could be his girlfriend or wife, approaches the same raccoon-eyed prostitute with a strange request – for her to kiss his back until he falls asleep at his own flat. Although her policy is to stay local, his request for tender love and care brings her guard down just enough for her to break her own rules.

As they enter territory that’s unfamiliar to the sex worker, both in service and physical surroundings, the man offers something to drink to make her feel more comfortable, which she wants no part of – perhaps because she doesn’t want to add a social dimension or to weaken her sense of situational awareness if the things start getting dodgy. Based on her commands for him to remove articles of clothing, it’s clear this is “business only.”

After he falls asleep, she relents to making herself comfortable by helping herself to the already-stocked apartment full of booze and decides to do some light perusing of random photos and documents in a poorly covered cardboard box. It’s not until she reads the newspaper clippings that she realizes his physical and emotional injuries, where they may have come from and the real service she may actually be providing him – and potentially similar services for some of her other clients.